Aug 142013
 
Outer Hebrides - Harris and Lewis

The last leg of our self-drive holiday was based in Stornoway, the capital of the Outer Hebrides, where we spent three nights in the Royal Hotel. Before reaching our destination, we had to take another car ferry journey from North Uist to Leverburgh in the south of the Isle of Harris. As we crossed over to Harris, on waters that were so shallow that we could see the bottom on many occasions, we could see the landscape ahead of us was more mountainous than on the other islands. We were yet to find out just how desolate and wild the [Read more]

Aug 102013
 
Outer Hebrides - Eriskay to North Uist

The second leg of our Outer Hebrides self-drive tour began on Eriskay, and a visit to the Am Politician pub. The name of the pub celebrates the island’s main claim to fame which is the World War 2 shipwreck of the SS Politician and the consequent liberation of its cargo of whisky. The sinking of the SS Politician is immortalised in the novel, and later film, ‘Whisky Galore’. After half an hour in the beer garden, again in glorious sunshine, we started the three-hour journey through Eriskay, South Uist, Benbecula and North Uist to out hotel for the second leg of [Read more]

Aug 032013
 
Outer Hebrides - an introduction

On Thursday 18th July 2013, my wife Sandra and I went on a self-drive tour of the Outer Hebrides. The seven night holiday started with two nights in Barra, at the southern end of the islands, followed by two nights on North Uist and concluding with three nights in Stornoway in the north of the islands. The holiday was arranged by Hebridean Hopscotch, a company based in Stornoway, and specialising in holidays in the Outer Hebrides. The company chose and booked the hotels, booked the ferries necessary to travel between the islands and arranged for a hire car to meet [Read more]